Food Machines

Food Machines

Collaborative robots compensate for lack of workforce

High hurdles to introducing robots in the Food Processing field

In Japan, where the population is decreasing, many industries are beginning to struggle with the lack of workforce.
It is especially serious in the area of food processing. Many of the jobs involving food that is soft and comes in various sizes can only be handled by humans, as conventional industrial robots (large robots with fencing around them) cannot process this food. There have been many challenging obstacles in terms of technology, hygiene and safety, in introducing robots to work with humans on food manufacturing lines. Because of this, it has been difficult to supplement the workforce shortage with robots.